Raw vs. Smackdown

No, this post is not about the WWE, its about enforcing my rules every single time. The kids are raw, and they had absolutely no problem saying and doing whatever they wanted to in class. This presented me with quite a big problem in keeping the class under control. And so the kids' raw behavior had a head-on collision with Mr. Madson's smack-down. They saw an absolute, iron-fisted enforcement of classroom rules and consequences as vicious, dictatorial rule in the classroom...at least at first. After a while, the kids that are going to screw around all the time EVENTUALLY chilled out, but not until they were sent to the office (sometimes on multiple occasions) and some actually got suspended from school for their disrutptive behavior. When they saw that Mr. Madson was actually capable of being a jerk to the disruptive kids, the borderline students decided that it wasn't worth it to cause problems in class. It wasn't worth getting in trouble to try to look funny or cool in front of the other kids. Sounds like a magic solution, right? As my buddy Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend!" The problem comes down to me being too *&#$ sick and tired of enforcing consequences and keeping track of writing assignments that are due and detentions and participation/behavior grades that after a while, sometimes it became an empty threat...which immediately made my efforts flawed and futile, which sometimes (most of the time) didn't fix a thing. As long as I was consistent, everything was smooth sailing...I just am not always able to be consistent...in which case, RAW wins out over Smackdown.